Side hustle – So here’s the thing: outside of my time at Cedarvale and a few years as a shipyard Heavy Equipment Operator and about a decade as a Union mechanic – I spent the other twenty plus years of my career in the “feast, then famine”, “paw to jaw” world of self-employment.
This episode of REPAIRS101 is sponsored by PRINCESS AUTO.
To this day, when asked what I do for a living, I say that I run several unsuccessful small businesses.
So my training at Cedarvale has provided me with all the skills I need to be a professional gardiner or whatever. But I don’t want to climb trees anymore. It’s kind of a young man’s sport. Although you gotta do what you gotta do, right?
In Vancouver the city leaves the wood from storm damaged trees on the street for extended periods of time, allowing the public to help themselves. I exploit my knowledge of trees to select the best burning wood, process it at home and sell it in bags for maximum return.
And power washing is another service that I offer with a discount for friends and family to help drum up extra business. To help drum up extra business.
And you can very easily offer bags of split kindling with this BOZEMAN Kindling Splitter Wedge.
Which segways nicely into my window washing business which all you need for that is a ladder or two and this Flow Through Telescopic Wash Brush.
If you just keep your eyes open you’ll notice all kinds of other Home Service jobs that need doing when you’re on a client’s property.
My dog walking business is just one to two hours a day, five days a week. But it brings in a considerable amount of money. Plus I get to hang out with dogs.
Leave it. Come on. Woof. Woof. Growl. Woof. Woof.
Now not only do people leave out all kinds of valuable stuff in the trash; but have a look in Craigslist under FREE STUFF sometime. You’ll find people are giving away things like pianos and sofas. It’s amazing.
Light bodywork, paint touch-ups and detailing are yet another way I pay the bills. Links are in the Description.
Rolling? Yes. Blah blah yerble burble.
When the weather turns and the snow flies I head out to make between fifty and a hundred dollars an hour shoveling snow and spreading salt.
YouTubers beware
Now last but not least, YouTube is definitely a large part of my self-employment portfolio.
There’s two things you should know though: One is that there are so many players in the game that the chances of your making any more than a few hundred dollars a month are about the same as your becoming a Rock Star or a Pop Sensation.
So you know getting too heavily invested in YouTube is not entirely dissimilar from having a gambling addiction. And you know, every video is another roll of the dice. Another chance to make it big.
Here’s another one of my side hustles here but that’s yet another one of my unsuccessful business attempts. (LAUGHS)
